Last night was just a big night for Kobe Bryant in general. You might even say it was a rollercoaster of emotions for him. Perhaps a rollercoaster of love. Maybe not. By the end of the night he’d hit another amazing career milestone, had an insane first quarter display, a disappointing end, and a loss. But we’ll get to all that.

First, Bryant wound up taking over Hakeem Olajuwon’s spot on the all-time scoring list, moving into the eighth spot with this little move-o-rama.

So that was a pretty good time. This was in the midst of a 21 point first quarter for Bryant. An incredible display of shooting from Bryant, who seemed to be on a mission to show those who questioned him that they were absolutely 100% wrong and there was no point in even suggesting that he isn’t clutch.

Bryant would finish 2 of 11 in the fourth quarter, 1-5 in “clutch” time as referenced by 82games.com (inside 5 points and 5 minutes), with a pair of free throws. 38 points on 27 shots which is pretty good and had Bryant not scored like gangbusters in the first, the Lakers may not have even been in the game. Still, this won’t help the discussion of whether Bryant going AWOL in the offense takes his teammates out of it. And for those who said that you have to watch the games and ignore the numbers to see if Bryant is clutch, tonight will be one of many games completely tossed aside as “irrelevant.”

In all honestly, the Lakers were having one of those nights, and combined with the trap game aspect with the Celtics looming and a terrific performance by DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings, just one of those things that happens. The nice thing about having five rings is you get to ask people to count them when they doubt you.